~ Moriah GuitarWorks ~

Moriah GuitarWorks was founded in 2007 by John Mark Hampton. John Mark has been building musical instruments since the late 70's. He attended the Guitar Research and Design Center and was instructed by George Morris and Charles Fox in acoustic and electric guitar construction. After attending this school he got a commission to build some electric guitars for a local music store in Greensboro, NC.

It was there that John Mark met Ken Hoover and began a guitar building relationship which endures to this day. When the commission of guitars for the music store was completed, John Mark and Ken ventured out to start Zion Guitars, which was founded in 1980. Zion was sold in 2000 as Ken struggled with Multiple Sclerosis. Ken is still fighting this disease today, but retains his passion to build the guitars of the future. He is a regular participant on the gear page and other social media.

Even though John Mark favors building acoustic guitars, the electric guitar has always followed along. The two instruments are very different in many ways, but the same skills can transfer to both. The main difference is found in that of the player and what expectations surround each design element. Acoustic guitar design develops in ever increasing levels of technology, as new ideas surface almost daily. Many gifted builders are out there now, pushing the envelope beyond what has been understood about the acoustic guitar. Unlike the violin, which found its design pinnacle with Stradivarius hundreds of years ago, the guitar design continues to become refined and developed with each new breakthrough. They have "ears" out on the web and through builder friends via tips and methods to enhance their own process.

Moriah Guitarworks desires to explore new ideas for building electric and acoustic guitars. The way in which this is done is by listening to players and attempting to employ design changes to the instrument. The old saying about necessity being the mother of invention is indeed true at Moriah. Beauty and design simplicity have inspired many ideas which are being used on these models. Finding woods that have both sonic and visually appealing character always presents a challenge to the process. Their design philosophy, which focuses on simplicity, leads them toward the removal of as many screws and trim devises as possible. They use magnets to hold truss rod and conrtol cavity covers in place, as they are recessed into the surrounding surfaces. Pickups are directly mounted to the body through the bobbin, allowing the trim to be removed.

Great discussions have come from players that have always wanted to find certain elements in a guitar. Sometimes these ideas can become almost impractical to actually create in real life, however they enjoy the adventure going down the road of "what could be" in the dream guitar. They live for the challenge to try out ideas, and test the results.

They have really enjoyed doing this guitar building thing. It is their hope that you will find the same enjoyment in playing Moriah guitars.